Written by

Rob Demovsky
Press-Gazette Media

All the defensive strides the Green Bay Packers made during the regular season, when they improved 21 spots in the statistical rankings to go from dead last to the brink of the top 10, meant nothing when it mattered most.

They fell short of the Super Bowl for the second straight season for the same reason: their defense crumbled again.

This time, it was a quarterback who ran the read-option offense to perfection. Colin Kaepernick made Dom Capers' defense look foolish as the San Francisco 49ers quarterback ran for 181 yards - the most ever by an NFL quarterback in any game - to knock the Packers out of ...